Bakker's Blog

Real collaboration via technology

I will most likely be focusing on collaborative tools for a little while.  If you're a follower, you know it's long been an area of interest for me, and recently I had the opportunity to work with some tools that brought it back to the forefront of my work (lucky me!)

To refresh - I think that true collaboration can be fostered by the innovative use of technology.  I think that information sharing and network building and reinforcing can be fostered by the innovative use of technology.  I do not think that the use of technology can create collaboration or information sharing (different than data sharing!), but it can foster, create pathways for, enable, enhance, etc collaboration and information sharing.  

For those of us who have spent their careers using technology to enhance networks and share information among  them, there are a lot of questions that have been coming up as of late:

• Collaboration is a big buzz word these days, but what does industry mean by it? 
• There are a lot of 'collaboration tools' out there, but how are people using them?  And how should they be using them?
• Do these new collaboration tools really get the job done?  
• How far can technology really take us?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks to broad collaboration? (yep, there are drawbacks). 

So, stay tuned.  My outlet at work for this stuff is drying up, so expect to be seeing more of it here. 

Librarians exist outside of libraries

I take pride in my chosen profession - Ich ben ein  librarian.  It took me a few years post-bachelors to commit to the field and I don't regret it.  Currently I do not work in a library.  I see the inside of my institution's library barely more than once a month.  However, much of my work is still very much in line with what I want to do, and if I were just in a library, it would easily be considered 'library work.' 
My point is this - analyzing the organization of information and organizing information in a way that fosters the transfer of information and knowledge (including studying how people work and teaching people to optimize their work to enable better knowledge transfer)  should not be unique to the confines of a library.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say it should be an essential, integral part of a lot of work -including IT.  Today, IT isn't about the limitations of systems, it's about developing systems to meet the user needs (not the other way around).  And that is the work of a librarian. Designing systems to maximize the efficiencies of how people instinctively organize information married to  the enhancements of the processing capacity of technologies and the dramatically extended reach of networks should involve people who understand those patterns as well as the people who understand the capacity of technology.  

I suppose this point is in line with many earlier posts about the need for librarians to reach outside the walls of libraries to work with other groups, particularly information technology.  I guess I am now looking at it after stepping out of the confines of those walls. 

Back Again

It has been a very long time since I have been posting.  I am no longer working in a library, but I am still very much an academic medical librarian.  I am working in an IT department now.  There are a lot of reasons why I made this transition, some big and some small.  It was also not that there weren't opportunities to move up in libraries.  In fact, I had practically the dream job (right boss, right position, almost right leeway to explore) but i said no, but more on that crazy decision later. 

Basically, I just wanted to get myself going again. 
so - hope there are some of you still out there. 

Libraries and IT - Building a Partnership

There was a good comment to a post on Library/IT that really succinctly brought out a viewpoint that is probably the common approach to IT relationships.

Why shouldn't librarians treat IT as vendors?

First, I like the way my director put it: IT departments are enablers - but I think we are talking about essentially the same concept.  (Note:  all this is from the perspective of academic health centers.  I fully recognize that different industries and different libraries must have different visions and different approaches to IT.  One size does not fit all).  Yes, IT's core role is as an enabler, particularly in health sciences.  So why do I think we need more than: "Why not learn enough IT to be able to (1) make your needs clear to IT people, (2) know what is currently possible, and (3) smell bull-whacky?" Well, because there is such great potential for libraries, for IT and most importantly for our customers (a.k.a. users).  Yes, to start - we can follow Willem's advice to learn enough to meet the three objectives, and that would put most of us in a better position than we currently occupy; but I want more.  Libraries and IT have an opportunity to join together to create something that not only enhances both individual fields, but also can bring new depth, connections and knowledge to those we serve. 

Libraries.  Libraries have a rich history of organizing and disseminating information - information and knowledge management and fostering knowledge growth.*  Throughout history, libraries have evolved to meet current technology in a way that maximizes the above mentioned goals/mission.  Today, information and knowledge transfer have reached new levels of integration with the technology of their dissemination.  Information is no longer just about the words printed on scrolls or books, information transfer happens through the method we use to deliver that information.  Finding information isn't about finding the right book, it is about having the right IT tools at the right time.  To say IT is just the next step after books in this aim is to deny the huge potential that IT presents.  Delivering information at the point of need calls on so many particulars, from having the information, to the tools to find the information amidst the exploding sea of data, the user knowledge of utilizing the systems, and delivering not only the information but access to the information where it is needed, when it is needed.  What libraries lack is a true integration that enables the best use of information and creates underutilized information and lost knowledge from less than ideal information and knowledge management. What was good enough for yesterday just is not good enough for today.  Information and information needs have changed. 

IT.  Information technology is about enabling information transfer in a way that is usable by its customers.  It is about delivering the data at the point of need.  IT creates the essential pathways and tools necessary for data transfer.  What IT lacks is the bigger picture vision of information and knowledge management and creating good information users, and application of that vision to its systems and pathways.  What libraries can bring is that vision, an important perspective on knowledge transfer and information organization from the end user perspective and the ability to teach end users. 

What users can get out of this is a richer, deeper information base that more fully meets their needs at the point of need.  While I have not quite got a clear big picture on the totality of ways this can truly be better than the current modus operandi,  I do see particular areas that can benefit greatly, like internal operational knowledge bases and institutional repositories (especially in research organizations) and educational tools.

I want to keep developing this vision, so you may hear of it from time to time, and of course, I'd love to hear what you think. 

*Yes, there are the aspects of public good, fostering democracy and public discourse, intellectual property, etc.  I am not saying these are the only things, just the ones on which I am focusing. 

Vision

Still here at Harvard living in the dorms while I solve all my leadership issues, and I have had some serious reflection time.  (Yes, i am supposed to be disconnected.  shh...don't tell anyone i'm posting). The framework we are learning about has 4 frames from which to approach any situation, and one of them is Symbolic, or vision.  I have always strongly felt that vision is a key element of leadership for me.  Vision has played strongly in my leading and being led, and assessments this week confirmed that.  Okay - so it's important.  And my point is??
I have been having conversations about my last post on my vision for the future of libraries and IT, and I have been again asked an interesting question - Why don't I leave libraries for IT?  Well, there are a lot of reasons, but what I am finding is one of them is vision.  IT so often lacks a deep shared vision.  It is easy for us to have a big hairy vision of what we do in libraries and frame it in this beautiful, meaningful context.   Now, all we need to do is act on it....

You know my vision, and I truly think libraries are in a fantastic position - we have the opportunity to transform ourselves to be centers of Information and Knowledge Management by shifting our focus away from our traditional role as collectors of information towards a hub of information dissemination and knowledge transfer.  This is what I see as the future I want for us.  I see the future as an intimate integration of what is now IT and libraries to form a new force that actively reaches out and enables innovation among our constituency. 

What form does this take?  I think that depends on the context - and that means it might be different for each library and it also means it will absolutely be different throughout the future for all of us, a constantly moving target.  Yes - it probably means less books. Yes - it means our needed skills and knowledge will change.  Yes - our comfort zones are gone.  Yes - it means we need to do our research to know what this should look like, and then act on it!  and Yes - it means we will bring significant, deep and unique value. 

Off to my last day of classes at Harvard.  I've almost got the accent down. 

Off to Harvard

This week I am attending the ACRL/Harvard Institute Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians courtesy of an AAHSL Leadership Scholarship.  I am very much looking forward to spending a week looking at the big picture of libraries with a group of enthusiastic librarians committed to the future of libraries.  In preparation, we are reading Reframing Organizations by Bolman and Deal, and I am starting to get excited about the week's lectures and discussions.  It is going to be a very intense week, but I hope to come back from it as enthusiastic about my profession as I am after MLA. 
There is such tremendous opportunity in librarianship right now, and one of the things I hope to get out of this week is a better grasp on how I can help maximize some of those opportunities from my current place in the profession.  With leadership on the mind this week, I had a discussion with a good friend about the potential for the future of libraries, particularly within the larger world of information technology and knowledge management.  Some institutions have the library and IT positioned in such a way that the two groups can work together to create the kind of information systems that not only create new mutually beneficial relationships between the groups, but also fulfill each discipline's mission of creating, providing and disseminating information more completely, thus enabling deeper knowledge and better innovation in their institution.  Social softwares, institutional repositories and other such systems are only the tip of the iceberg of the ways that IT and libraries can work together in new and exciting ways.  I think now is the time for libraries to grab this opportunity and lead the charge to better information systems and knowledge management, and this week I hope to learn more about leading libraries in that direction.